UNTITLED FILM DISINFECTION PROJECT
As Borges once said, “Censorship is the mother of metaphor.” This 16mm structural film explores how state control breeds its own linguistic and visual resistance. Created in response to China's "zero-COVID" policy—with its harsh lockdowns, relentless testing, and severe restrictions that tragically culminated in the Ürümqi fire—this project treats developed black leader film as an "unclean" object in need of cleansing. By applying chlorine dioxide to film surfaces—following government disinfection guidelines during the pandemic—the work transforms physical material into a metaphor for censorship and information control in mainland China. Untitled Film Disinfection Project examines the delicate intersection of public health measures, state control, and artistic resistance.



6 Frame Stills from Untitled Film Disinfection Project I, 2025
END CREDITS
This print is 100 feet of developed yet unexposed Ektachrome, chemically altered through direct
contact
with hydrogen chloride and sodium chlorite. Following China's zero-COVID policy guidelines for
surface
disinfection during the 2022 pandemic lockdowns, these chemical agents were applied to image-less
Ektachrome.
The resulting celluloid surface reveals organic undulations and fragmented constellations—fluid,
vein-like structures dissolve into scattered, particulate forms. Like blank pages that carried
silent
resistance during the White Paper Movement, where absence became a form of protest, and the act of
wiping clean only made visible what could not be erased.